The enduring image of the Bowl Championship Series should not be all of the controversies, or coaches raising the crystal football. Instead, flash back to all those wonderful tricks. Hook-and-lateral. Halfback pass. Statue of Liberty. Halfback proposal to cheerleader.

Savor that indelible moment on Jan. 1, 2007, when Boise State beat Oklahoma, when BCS-busting came to full fruition. As we move from the BCS to the College Football Playoff era, there is no guarantee we'll see anything like it again.

Oh, the little guy will still get a shot, sort of. It's written into the new format: Each year, the College Football Playoff's selection committee will choose one team from the non-power leagues to play in one of the "New Year's Six" bowls.

Upsets happen, and so we'll see some. A Northern Illinois or a Fresno State — or yeah, a Boise State — will beat a big boy in a big bowl again. Maybe they'll do it with a fantastic finish. But it will never mean more than it did on that night in the desert, back when Chris Petersen was a rookie head coach and the Broncos were almost completely unknown — and with apologies to Utah, back when BCS-busting wasn't really yet a thing.

Boise State's success that night, and what the Broncos did the next few seasons, altered or at least broadened the never-ending debate about the postseason. For a moment at least, it seemed just slightly possible a team like Boise State could inch its way into the national title conversation. It was not out of the question that the convoluted formula would creak and heave and spit out a final ranking that had Boise State, somehow, at No. 2 — with a shot at the crystal football.

It was a long shot, sure, and it never happened. But given the criteria the selection committee will be charged with considering, it's actually harder to see a team from one of the smaller conferences getting into the playoff than it would have been to work into the top two of the BCS formula.

Even three seasons ago, when Petersen's Broncos had firmly established themselves as a Top 10 program, it seemed a legitimate possibility. Critics said their success, and Utah's and TCU's, too, was smoke and mirrors, the product of a good team playing a very soft schedule — how would the Broncos fare in, say, the SEC?

We'll never know (though Utah's and TCU's initial experiences in the Pac-12 and Big 12, respectively, help make the critics' case). But here's something: What we remember of that Fiesta Bowl win against Oklahoma is mostly the finish, the last 18 seconds of regulation and then the overtime. But the first 55 minutes or so saw the upstart Broncos dominate a perennial power. A couple of years later, Utah popped Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. Those weren't tricks. They were pure fun.

What's lost with the end of an era? Those wonderful BCS-busters.

George Schroeder, a national college football reporter for USA TODAY Sports, is on Twitter @GeorgeSchroeder.

THE BEST ACTION FROM THE BOWLS

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Oregon State Beavers wide receiver Brandin Cooks (7) celebrates with teammates after a touchdown against the Boise State Broncos in the 1st quarter of the 2013 Hawaii Bowl at Aloha Stadium. Marco Garcia, USA TODAY Sports

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